The long-established research of Prehistory and West Asian/Northeast African archaeology (the former Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology, OREA) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences was transformed into a department of the »new« Austrian Archaeological Institute (OeAI) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 2021. This merging of several institutes into the new OeAI offers a wide range of new opportunities for basic and interdisciplinary research, which support the traditional research focus as well as the development of new projects in world archaeology. The research areas of the Department of Prehistory and West Asian/Northeast African Archaeology include Quaternary archaeology, Prehistory, Near Eastern archaeology and Egyptology. The groups cover an essential cultural area of prehistoric and early historical developments in Europe, Northeast Africa and West Asia. Prehistory is embedded in the world archaeology concept without geographical borders, including projects beyond this core zone, as well as a scientific and interdisciplinary approach. The focus lies in the time horizon from the Pleistocene about 2.6 million years ago to the transformation of societies into historical epochs in the 1st millennium BC. The chronological expertise of the groups covers the periods Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. The archaeology of West Asia and Northeast Africa is linked to the Mediterranean and Europe, which enables large-scale and chronologically broad basic research on human history. The department consists of the following seven groups: »Quaternary Archaeology«, »Prehistoric Phenomena«, »Prehistoric Identities«, »Archaeology in Egypt and Sudan«, »Archaeology of the Levant«, »Mediterranean Economies« and »Urnfield Culture Networks«. The groups conduct fieldwork and material analyses in Austria, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Greece, Cyprus, Türkiye, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Sudan and South Africa.

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